We heard loud bangs, say villagers near Balakot where India hit Pakistan

Villagers near Balakot, the area Indian jets struck, claim that they heard loud bangs in the early hours of Tuesday but reported only one person wounded by bomb shards.

“One house damaged and craters were left where the bombs had fallen,” said a villager in a BBC Hindi video that was tweeted out by news agency.

Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale told the media the "intelligence-led operation" on the Pakistan-based terror group's biggest training camp in Balakot became "absolutely necessary" as it was planning more suicide attacks in India.



Prime Minister Narendra Modi briefed President Ram Nath Kovind and Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu about Tuesday's strike.

Though Gokhale did not make it clear if the strike was on Balakote in Pakistan occupied Kashmir or Balakot in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, defence sources said it was the latter. Balakot is about 80 km from the Line of Control and near Abbotabad where Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was killed in hiding by covert US forces.